Excellent read and really cool. Thanks for that Cliff.
How awesome is that to pick up a kid who had a Loadholt jersey as a young Vikes fan. Welcome to ur ne South of the Border home young man! Show us what ya got!!

By the way I am even a little more excited about the kid for another reason, a lifelong Vikings fan named Brett. Same here!! Only I'm almost 52 and making a fraction of what he is.. but nevertheless at least its a Brett.. and he didnt wear that nasty Green n Yellow before he came here

Smart trade. We now have a guy that can plug in and play if we need him to as well as provide depth on this OL. Could see him going to LG when Elflein is back. You can just about guarantee Jones is better than any 7th round pick we take next year.

1.) If Elflein is out, we still have a starting quality player on the cheap for this year.

2.) Elflein and Jones can play Guard and Center. If Jones works out to be a very good Center, Elflein can play his natural position at Guard and we'd have two stud players on the o-line, Guard Elflein and Reiff.

3.) The man was a huge fan of the Vikings, which means playing for his favorite team could give him a lot of motivation to do well for us. He could play better than he ever did with the Giants, possibly.

4.) We gave up relatively little to get him and gained a whole lot if he works out. This is Slick Rick at his absolute best.

I like the trade because this guy seems real solid and the money doesn't bother me. Vikes were still, what?...$10 million under the cap even after signing Iloka? My main concern is Elfy. I'm really hoping they expect him back soon and this move was to get more depth for the stretch.

You can roll the cap forward, which is what the Vikings have done the past couple of years. You also want some spare to sign guys during the season if needed. We have a lot of guys that are on a contract year so looking past this year, money is a pretty big concern.

#Vikings have raved about how quickly Brett Jones, acquired in a trade last Sunday, has picked up the offense in a week. He's the leading candidate to start at center in next Sunday's opener vs. San Francisco.

Also related: the coaching staff has had like two months and still doesn't have a settled O-line. Neat!

this is what scares me too!

I am no expert, but my gut feels like this could be a good starting line:

LT: Reiff
LG: Elflein or Jones (I don’t know who is more natural on either side)
C: Isidora (assuming what Zimmer says is true about this being his natural position)
RG: Elflein or Jones
RT: Remmers (I thought he was pretty good at this position last year and poor at guard, but again I am no expert)

I am no expert, but my gut feels like this could be a good starting line:

LT: Reiff
LG: Elflein or Jones (I don’t know who is more natural on either side)
C: Isidora (assuming what Zimmer says is true about this being his natural position)
RG: Elflein or Jones
RT: Remmers (I thought he was pretty good at this position last year and poor at guard, but again I am no expert)

I agree, although I'm not sure who plays C, between Isidora, Jones, and Elflein once healthy.

Remmers is the best RT on the roster at least until/unless O'Neill gets up to speed. Not too good as a guard, but a decent backup.

In the meantime O'Neill and Hill would be inactives due to lack of position flexibility, and Compton/Collins would be my gameday backups....

In reality the opening day line will probably be
LT:Reiff->Hill->Collins
LG:Compton->Isidora->Collins
C:Jones->Isidora
RG:Remmers->Isidora->Collins
RT: Hill->Remmers->Collins